Biden administration continues to push for employment law reforms

President Joe Biden highlighted several initiatives that would impact HR leaders, the labor market and the workplace in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

“We’re beginning to restore the dignity of work,” Biden said to Congress.

Here are three key points that HR leaders need to know:

1. Non-compete agreements

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a new rule last month that would ban employers from imposing non-compete clauses on their employees. A non-compete clause, as defined by the FTC, is a contractual term between an employer and a worker that prevents the latter blocks from working for a competing employer, or starting a competing business, typically within a certain geographic area and period of time after the worker’s employment ends.

Approximately 30 million American workers are bound by a non-compete clause, according to the FTC, which estimates the proposed rule would increase workers’ earnings between $250 billion and $296 billion per year.

“A cashier at a burger place can’t cross the street to take the same job at another burger place to make a couple bucks more,” Biden said. “Not anymore. We’re banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they’re worth.”

The FTC will be accepting comments from the public on the proposal until March 10.

2. Unionization

The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act was introduced in 2021 to expand...

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